While conducting infrastructure work in the Garden of Gethsemane, builders were surprised to stumble upon a vast underground cavity, found to be a mikveh – a bath used for the purpose of achieving ritual purity in Judaism, Haaretz reported.
The cavity in the rock was identified to be from around 2,000 years ago, the Second Temple period – right about the time Jesus lived, as per Biblical tradition. The said site is a magnet for Christian pilgrims, because according to the Gospel of Luke, Jesus would pray on the nearby Mount of Olives, and as Matthew recounted, he did so also on the night before his crucifixion.
"Gethsemane is one of the most important sanctuaries in the Holy Land, because in this place the tradition remembers the confident prayer of Jesus and his betrayal and because every year millions of pilgrims visit and pray in this place", Fr. Francesco Patton, the Custos of the Holy Land said, adding that "even the latest excavations conducted on this site have confirmed the antiquity of the Christian memory and tradition linked to the place".
Research of the newly spotted bath was delegated to archaeologists at the Israel Antiquities Authority working jointly with academics from the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, a Franciscan research institute near the modern Church of Gethsemane.
While the latter was being constructed in 1919-1924, the remains of a previously unknown ancient Byzantine church from 1,500 years ago (around the 6th century AD) and a later Crusader one were spotted.
This was the first archaeological evidence of activity found in the area around Gethsemane from the Second Temple period, the antiquities authority stated.
The discovery of the ritual bath raised quite a few questions as to what its purpose was.
The name Gethsemane means "oil press" in Hebrew, apparently referring to the production of olive oil – a typical locally produced food. The ritual bath, it has been suggested, could have been used by the ancient manufacturers in daily purification rituals that preceded day-to-day work.
"The discovery of the ritual bath probably confirms the place's ancient name, Gethsemane", Amit Re'em, a Jerusalem district archaeologist at the Antiquities Authority, explained.
Jewish mikvehs dating back to the Second Temple era have also been found elsewhere in Israel, along with Jordan, where archaeologists some time ago found a monumental ritual bath in King Herod's palace in Machaerus. The venues were, however, apparently quite rare in the Galilee.
Among the few found there is one hidden among the ruins of Gamla, a windswept hilltop site hanging above the eastern part of the Sea of Galilee and overlooking a lake. Since it is inside a synagogue courtyard, unlike the bath at Gethsemane, this one was likely used by worshippers rather than artisans.